Dinesh Wagle on Nepali society

January 19, 2006November 9, 2009

Biratnagar to Pathlaya

Thursday: Kumar was restless. Charlie wouldn’t move from the room before filing a report about latest development in Kathmandu to his London office. He was busy with his PDA and cell phone that was still working as he was out of Kathmandu. Mine was working too. All mobile phones in Kathmandu Valley were cut off from the very morning. Landlines died for a few hours in the early morning.

We headed for Biratnagar airport hoping to get three tickets. Tom had left us early in the morning. The problem with we three (Charlie, Kumar and myself) was that we didn’t have ticket for the flights to Kathmandu. But then we didn’t have ticket for Biratnagar the other day. We somehow managed to fly in a Cosmic Air flight. But this time around luck wasn’t on our side. At least for Charlie and me. Kumar miraculously, yes, found a ticket in a Royal Nepal Airlines flight to Kathmandu. After saying bye to him and disparately waiting for about two hours at the airport hoping for tickets, we hired a car and headed to Kathmandu. Hetauda was the destination of the day. Well, that was just a destination. We couldn’t move ahead from Pathlaya because of thick fog. Curfew would start at 9 PM in Hetauda and we were late by a few minutes.